


STARMAN: The Soldier

by csyphrett



Series: Starman [3]
Category: Starman - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 02:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13988208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csyphrett/pseuds/csyphrett
Summary: Dr.s Reynolds Abernathy and Erich Mannheim hope to create a super soldier for America in 1938 Littleville. An unexpected problem forces some intervention from a mysterious doctor and Starman.





	STARMAN: The Soldier

The Soldier  
1

Larry Oakley frowned as he studied his patient. Ed Thaw looked bored. The hole in  
his chest had scarred over. The metal rod in his chest had not moved as far as either  
man could tell.

“So nothing has happened since we released you?” Oakley stepped back, hand on his  
chin.

“Nope.” Thaw shrugged. “What could happen except this thing moving and killing  
me? I’m glad it hasn’t done that yet.”

“So am I.” Oakley frowned as he considered the implications. Thaw should be dead.  
Maybe the trick he had performed had worked better than he thought it would when  
he had done it.

“Larry?” The door of the examination room opened. A bushy head of hair peered  
inside the room. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Mr. Thaw, this is the other doctor that helped with the thing in your chest, Clark  
Stebbins.” Larry waved for his colleague to come into the room. “Clark, this is Ed  
Thaw.”

“Nice to meet you.” Stebbins tried to smile despite not wanting to. “Could I borrow  
your doctor for a minute?”

“Go ahead.” Thaw waved a hand. “I think I’m done.”

“Talk to Inza about your next appointment, Mr. Thaw.” Oakley let Stebbins take his  
upper arm and lead him out into the hall. “What’s going on, Clark?”

“The military is bringing their patient for the upper floors.” Stebbins looked around.  
“They’re bringing in equipment by the armload.”

“They cleared the top three floors for one patient?” Oakley rubbed his chin. “What  
kind of equipment are they bringing in, Clark? We have some of the best medical  
tools in the state.”

“I don’t know.” Stebbins frowned. “A lot of it is still in boxes waiting to be  
unpacked.”

“Maybe they are going to bring in more than one person for treatment.” Oakley  
wondered what the setup would be like upstairs.

“I hope so with the amount of stuff they are bringing in.” Stebbins frowned. “I  
haven’t seen so much equipment.”

“If it makes you nervous, go talk to Kelso.” Oakley knew that was a useless  
suggestion. Kelso would just brush his friend off with some bull about experiments,  
or priority patients.

Kelso did what the administration wanted, whether it was good for the patients, or  
not.

“Pull the other leg.” Stebbins smiled. “Kelso could care less unless his master tells  
him otherwise.”

“How are they bringing the equipment in?” Oakley should have known that Stebbins  
would never fall for such a trick.

“By truck behind the hospital.” Stebbins gestured with his thumb.

“I’ll go down and look at the stuff.” Oakley shrugged. “Maybe we can figure out what  
they are trying to do from the labels.”

“What do I do?” Stebbins looked up and down the hall to see if anyone was listening  
in.

“Just keep an eye out for Kelso, or anyone not wanting us to snoop.” Oakley checked  
his watch. “Let’s go do it now while I am between appointments.”

“Right.” Stebbins led the way down the hall, hands in his pockets.

Oakley shook his head. He followed, wondering what was going on. Asking Kelso  
would get them nothing. He knew that from experience with the administrator.

This had to be connected with asking them to clear the top three floors of the hospital  
months ago. It was the only thing that made sense to the doctor. They wanted the  
floors cleared for this equipment to be brought in?

He indicated for Stebbins to wait in the corridor. He didn’t need the other man getting  
in his way if trouble started. He wanted to be able to put down any problem without  
an audience.

His ability gave him a tremendous advantage against ordinary humans. All he needed  
was cover to overwhelm anyone in his way. Then he could question them about what  
they were up to after that.

He didn’t want to have to explain that to Stebbins.

The other doctor would just be in the way. He didn’t need to erase memories from his  
friend’s brain on top of whatever else he might have to do to remain undetected.

Revealing his secret life was out of the question.

He was not about to tell anyone that he had been gifted with the ability to see a  
hidden layer in the world and change it to something he needed.

Others would try to take advantage of him so they could profit on his ability to cheat  
reality.

He paused when he saw the line of workers muscling boxes on dollies. He watched  
them head for the back elevators. He scanned the labels where he could so he could  
try to figure out what was being brought in.

“Sir,” said a man in a suit coming up at the end of the line. “I am going to have to ask  
you to step back. This is all something you don’t need to know.”

“Really?” Oakley kept his hands in his pockets. “Why?”

“Because the government says so.” The man pulled out a badge. “Now move along.”

“I’ll be glad to do that.” Oakley smiled.

“Why aren’t you moving?” The man frowned at the doctor.

“You don’t know what’s being brought in here.” Oakley knew he was right from the  
expression on the man’s face. “Don’t get tough. I might need to fix your face one  
day.”

“Move it, buddy.” The agent put his badge away. “You don’t want any trouble, and  
I don’t have the time to argue with you.”

“All right.” Oakley turned and walked away. Other men in suits were appearing. If  
he provoked them, he would have to demonstrate his abilities to them. He wasn’t  
ready to do that.

If they pushed him too much, he might have to put them in rooms next to their fancy  
equipment, and Kelso would try to revoke his privileges.

And he had seen enough. He knew what they were bringing into the hospital. He just  
didn’t know why.

“What was in the boxes?” Stebbins stood at the next corner, looking at the parade of  
boxes moving along despite the interference of his friend.

“Life support.” Oakley scratched his cheek. “They’re bringing in oxygen and separate  
monitors.”

“Why? We have plenty of that.” Stebbins arced his eyebrows. “We could load up that  
without all this.”

“They don’t want to use our equipment.” Oakley shrugged. “They want to use their  
own.”

“Is this why Kelso wanted us to clear our patients?” Stebbins frowned at the thought.  
“How much are they making off of this?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Oakley started walking. “We have to take care of our patients. The  
government suits can take care of whatever they are doing upstairs. I don’t have the  
need to challenge them for control of the hospital as long as we are helping people.”

“I don’t like it.” Stebbins followed his friend. “What are they planning up there?”

“I don’t know.” Oakley opened a door for his friend. “They will probably be setting  
up checkpoints at the elevators to make sure no one walks the halls up there while  
they are doing whatever.”

“There’s no way to fight this?” Stebbins looked back down the corridor. “We should  
try at least.”

“We have our own patients to deal with at the moment.” Oakley shook his head at his  
friend’s idealism. “Chasing after someone else’s is not the thing to do.”

“We let it slide?” Stebbins looked like he didn’t like that option at all.

“There’s nothing in this for us.” Oakley shrugged. “They have a patient they are  
bringing in and they don’t want our expertise. Let them try to figure out what they are  
doing. They’ll call us if they need us.”

“Their patient might die.” Stebbins insisted. “We don’t know these guys. They might  
be the worst people ever. We should try to get into this so we know how to fix  
whatever they break without being told about it later.”

“Quit asking for trouble, Clark.” Oakley rubbed his face. “As long as they don’t want  
us involved, trying to horn in will just cause trouble for ourselves. If we lose  
privileges, we’ll have to set up in new offices and transfer our files and patients to  
those offices, and we would have no place to work if their cases were serious. Leave  
the government alone.”

“What if they screw up?” Stebbins gestured with both hands. “What then?”

“Kelso will fix whatever the problem is, or ask Ben to consult.” Oakley smiled as he  
led the way back to the more public areas of the hospital. “They have more  
experience than we do in solving weird problems.”

“I don’t like this at all.” Stebbins snorted. “You’re taking this pretty calmly.”

“There’s nothing I can do that would get me what I want out of this.” Oakley paused  
to look at the empty lobby. “Going up against Kelso without a silver bullet would be  
the end of my career. Everyone I could have treated would have to go to some less  
talented hack. I’m looking out for my future patients over someone we don’t know  
is in trouble yet.”

“You’re right.” Stebbins checked his watch. “I guess we shouldn’t get involved.”

“The government will let us know when we have to deal with their mistake.” Oakley  
headed for his office with a wave. “Whatever they are doing won’t end in anything  
good.”

Oakley hoped his friend took the discussion to heart. He didn’t want to bail his friend  
out of charges if he didn’t have to do that.

And he didn’t like the way the agents were ready to start shooting if he hadn’t backed  
away from the confrontation.

2  
The government brought in their patient in the dead of night when street traffic would  
be at its lowest. A white van pulled into the dock for the morgue and the gurney was  
offloaded there. They pushed him through the hospital to the elevator and took him  
up to the top floor.

“Is all this secrecy necessary?,” asked Dr. Kelso. “We still have patients in the rest  
of the hospital who can talk about this.”

“They don’t know about this, and your staff better not tell them,” said Ben Verner.  
He was in charge of the project’s security. He had wanted it confined to an Army  
facility, but had been overruled. “As soon as the test rounds are done, we’ll be able  
to move to another place to continue doing what we’re doing.”

“And what are you doing?,” asked Kelso. “Is that classified with the rest?”

“Yes, it’s classified,” said Verner. His square face pulled down in an angry frown.  
“Don’t you have something else to do?”

“No,” said Kelso. “The administrative papers are already filed, the hospital reports  
are fine until tomorrow, and someone has to be here in case your man wakes up.”

“He won’t,” said Verner. “The project staff assure me he won’t wake up before he is  
installed in his bathtub. He might not wake up until tomorrow according to their  
estimates.”

The gurney arrived on the floor. The medics pushed their patient into the room set  
aside for him. A wall had been knocked down to join two rooms together. A bathtub  
with monitors at the head of it dominated the room. Green and blue slime filled the  
thing to the brim.

Kelso noted the windows had been covered to block anyone looking at the room from  
the outside.

The ambulance attendants lifted their burden from the gurney and laid him in the  
bathtub. They rolled the bed out of the way. Their job was done for the moment. They  
headed back downstairs to take the ambulance back where it belonged.

One of the doctors and a group of attendants and nurses moved in on the bathtub.  
They hooked up leads to the flesh beneath the extensive bandages that Kelso noted.  
He frowned at that. Usually burn victims required that much wrapping. 

He watched and said nothing. Verner wouldn’t tell him where they had dug up their  
guinea pig. He would declare it classified and above the doctor’s need to know.

Kelso wasn’t happy about that, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t  
want them kicking the rest of the patients out of the hospital so they could run their  
experiment.

“We’re going to put the lid on now,” said the doctor in charge. “Is the oxygen mask  
fitted correctly?”

“Yes,” said one of the nurses. “Everything is ready to go.”

“Rotating shifts until he wakes up,” said the doctor. “He is not to be alone at any  
time.”

The group nodded at the order.

“Happy now, Dr. Kelso?,” asked Verner. He straightened his tie with one hand.

“Not really,” said Kelso. “I have a lot of questions that I don’t think you can answer  
because you don’t know what’s going on either. I’m going downstairs, and then  
home. If something happens, you will be able to reach me in either one of those  
spots.”

“You’re hospital will be safe with us,” said Verner. He nodded at the guards on the  
elevator to let Kelso pass.

Kelso left the floor. His mind was on the substance in the tub. What could it be? Did  
it have any other applications? Could he get some when this experiment was over?

If it had some kind of medicinal use, it would be worth using to enhance the  
reputation of his hospital.

As soon as the government was done, he could move people back upstairs. The  
hospital would start getting beds again. Money would allow him to add on another  
wing to help more people. More money coming in could be used to add more beds.

They could be the biggest hospital in the region if they could get by the next few  
months that the government was using the top floors for their project.

He might have to get rid of Stebbins. The man showed too much interest in what was  
going on. Violating security would get him shot.

Kelso entered his office and sat down behind his desk. He closed his eyes. It bothered  
him that the government picked his hospital for their test run. He supposed they had  
plenty of hospitals on Army bases to do what they wanted.

And he didn’t have any way to contact any official to check on things. It was Verner’s  
word and some paperwork that said they were the government at all.

Kelso decided that he would take the money as long as it came in. If something  
happened to show that Verner’s crew weren’t who they said they were, he could say  
he had been fooled by the contracts and official looking badges.

It wasn’t a foolproof cover, but it was the best he could do at the moment.

It also meant if questions arose, the hospital would lose.

Kelso, as the administrator, had allowed human experimentation on the premises. As  
the face of the hospital, he would be held responsible for any ethical violations. He  
could lose his license to practice over this.

His dream of expanding the capabilities of the place would go down in flames with  
him if that happened.

And talking to the doctor in charge was out of the question. Verner kept security  
around the man at all times.

He would love to get a sample of that sludge and see what it was made of for his own  
use if it worked. The experiment might fail. If that happened, it showed the substance  
wasn’t as good as advertised.

How many other subjects had been used to test the effectiveness of the stuff?

He doubted they would go to human testing if they hadn’t used it on animals first. He  
expected them to at least know what the end point of the experiment was.

He wondered if they did know what they were doing. He put that idea aside. If they  
didn’t know what they were doing, they were going to get their subject killed and  
their funding pulled.

And they had to produce something to justify the expense they were undertaking.

Kelso checked his watch. He should check in on his doctors, and any patient that  
needed it, then head home. There was nothing more he could do there.

He liked walking around the hospital at night. It was quiet. People were asleep. The  
staff only had to look in on the patients every hour. It was the perfect time to check  
on things.

And it enhanced his reputation of a harsh taskmaster.

He preferred that to being seen approachable and friendly. People would try to take  
advantage if they thought he was sympathetic.

He didn’t want that to come up at all if he could avoid it.

Stebbins and Oakley tried to push on him to get things they wanted for their patients.  
His other doctors needed things too. He couldn’t allow anything that would put the  
hospital in the red.

Kelso wondered the floors below the government setup. The nurses and attending  
physicians gave him reports that basically amounted that things were going as  
expected. Emergency cases were being handled as reliably as they could be.

He checked his watch as he reached the end of the hall. It was time for him to go  
home and get some dinner. Then he could listen to the radio until it was time for him  
to go to bed.

Kelso loved Fibber McGee and Molly. He tried to listen to it every week.  
Occasionally some emergency would pull him away, but he tried to get that half hour  
to himself as much as he could.

The doctor walked back through the hospital to hang his white coat up in his office.  
He pulled on his suit jacket and headed for the parking lot. He checked his watch as  
he walked back through the building to the exit. He could cook dinner in plenty of  
time before his show came on.

Kelso walked to his car in its reserved slot. He saw a trail of flame overhead but  
dismissed it. He didn’t have time for shooting stars.

He pulled out of the slot and headed for the street. He turned right and headed for the  
highway. He thought about living closer to the city, but he preferred space between  
him and any neighbors.

There were plenty of farms and old places that remained after the highway had been  
paved. Kelso had one such place just close enough that he could get to the main road  
in a minute, but far enough away that he didn’t have to listen to the whine of cars and  
trucks all day.

He drove to his exit and then followed the road down to the driveway he had paved  
to his house. He stopped to check his mailbox before driving down the long stretch  
to his house.

He parked the car in front of his house and checked the mail as he walked up to the  
door.

Nobody had died at his hospital so today had been a good day for him.

3  
Dr. Reynolds Abernathy and Dr. Erich Mannheim looked at the charts of their patient.  
Everything seemed in range of the animal test subjects they had experimented on  
before they had been allowed a human subject. The animals had only lived a few days  
after the experiment. They hoped to do better with their current patient.

“The blood pressure and pulse look good,” said Mannheim. “Breathing is normal. We  
just need to take an x-ray to see how things are going inside.”

“I agree,” said Abernathy. “The eyes are too dilated in my opinion. Something is  
keeping them open. We need to fix that somehow.”

“Maybe he is dreaming while under,” said Mannheim. He shrugged narrow shoulders.  
“We might not be able to fix it until we remove the bandages and take him out of the  
bath.”

Abernathy nodded. This might be what killed the animals they experimented on.  
Maybe they had dreamed themselves into a mental state of fear until their hearts  
collapsed.

There might not be a way to fix that. The subjects might slowly die from their own  
fears despite what he and Mannheim tried to do to help them through the process.

What did he tell the government if they failed to deliver on their promise?

Abernathy looked at the chart again. He hated the glasses he was forced to wear on  
his long nose, but his eyesight had begun failing him. He ran his finger down the  
numbers.

“We could pull him out of the bath early,” he said. “His numbers are consistent  
enough for us to try.”

“We could kill him if we’re wrong,” said Mannheim. His accent rose to the fore as  
he considered his argument. “We don’t have the luxury of pulling him out and then  
finding that none of the improvements we hoped for have happened. There’s no way  
to put him back in the bath. We only have one try.”

“I know,” said Abernathy. “A partial success will still vindicate our research. He just  
won’t be the superman we think we can create with this.”

“I think we should give him a few more hours,” said Mannheim. “If the numbers stay  
stable, we can cut him out of his bandages and see if he survived intact.”

Abernathy nodded. His partner was right. If the man lived, but couldn’t function, that  
was just as bad as the chemical bath killing him outright.

There was no telling what they could do with the chemicals in the bath. They might  
be able to transfer organs as simply as changing sheets in a typewriter. Bodies twisted  
by diseases like polio might be straightened to what they could have been.

If their trial failed, none of that would come to pass. No one would be helped. They  
would lose their funding. They would be counted as failures for even trying to help  
others.

They needed a way to have a partial success if their subject did die.

He had no idea how they could guarantee that when they still didn’t know what was  
going to happen with the subject they were trying to help.

Abernathy decided he needed a drink. He wasn’t a gambler, but what they were doing  
was one of the biggest gambles of his career. Everything rested on their patient  
coming through with his mind functioning properly, and his body responding  
according to the data they had collected.

If the experiment failed, the government would never listen to them again.

Neither would any of their colleagues. Forget publishing any findings. They would  
be laughingstocks in the medical community.

“You worry too much about the future, my friend,” said Mannheim. “Everything will  
be decided in the next few hours and we don’t have any options other than stopping  
the experiment, or waiting to see what is going on under the bandages. Let’s see if  
Mr. Mundy can save our lives before we decide to quit.”

“You’re right,” said Abernathy. “I guess all we can do is see things through and hope  
we didn’t ruin the rest of this young man’s life.”

“We didn’t,” said Mannheim. “He didn’t have a chance where he was. We’re giving  
him one now.”

Abernathy nodded. He checked his watch. He was on what they called the rounds. He  
needed to get a drink and some dinner. Then he had to watch everything to make sure  
their treatment didn’t kill their patient while they watched.

“I need to get dinner,” said Abernathy. “I’ll be back in a bit to take over.”

“Take your time,” said Mannheim. “Mr. Mundy and I aren’t going anywhere.”

Abernathy grunted at the joke before heading to the elevator. He took the cab  
downstairs and walked across the lobby. If things worked out, they might be able to  
turn hospitals into processing centers. Patients came in with an illness, and left  
completely healthy a few minutes later.

That could change the world for the better if they could make it work. It was worth  
gambling that they could get Mundy on his feet. He just didn’t like it as much as  
Erich seemed to.

Abernathy walked to his car. A drive to the local diner would clear his head. Maybe  
he would have an idea after he ate. Then they could see if that was a better solution  
than waiting around.

He felt that they had lost their animals because they had waited too long. Had they  
misread the signs? Was that what had killed them?

Had they missed the signs because the animals couldn’t tell them how much distress  
they were in?

That could change everything. How did he prove it without ruining the experiment?  
He considered his options as he drove. There had to be some way to prove things  
before they killed Mundy.

He parked in the lot next to the diner. An ugly black man came out of the diner. He  
waved at the workers before walking down the road.

Abernathy paused. You didn’t usually see a colored man eating with whites. He  
looked at the man walking down the road. He blinked and the man had vanished.

He stepped into the diner. He blinked at some of the customers arguing with the  
owner about the man who had just left. The owner finally raised his hands to quiet  
them.

“I’ve told you before,” said the owner. “Steve works for Eustace Johnson. They help  
me out more than you goof ups. Steve can eat here any time he wants. He’s simple  
and he doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“And he tips,” said one of the waitresses. “Which is more than some of you.”

“I know you don’t like him because he’s colored.” The owner took a deep breath.  
“But as long as I owe the Johnsons, he’s welcome to eat at his table as long as he  
minds his business.”

“I still don’t like it,” said one of the group who didn’t like Steve.

“Nobody cares what you like,” said the owner. “You can eat, or you can leave. I’m  
running a business and I don’t have time for crybabies who have to play with their  
food to make themselves happy. Dancing steaks, sheesh.”

The spokesman growled but he led the way for his group to leave the diner. Everyone  
watched them leave. Then the hustle and bustle slowly started filling the room.

“Trouble?,” asked Abernathy when one of the waitresses arrived to take his order.

“That Judd Kent is a pain,” said the waitress. “He runs his mouth all the time and is  
the cheapest, grabbiest idiot around.”

“I can believe that,” said Abernathy. “Can I have the house special, ma’am? A bottle  
of Coco-Cola would be good to wash it down.”

“I’ll get that right up for you,” said the waitress. She walked away, talking to other  
customers as she worked her way back to the kitchen.

The doctor looked out the window. He had to eat quickly and get back to the hospital.  
Maybe once he and Erich had made fixing people’s bodies as easy as changing  
clothes, they could work on fixing people’s brains.

That seemed more difficult than his initial thoughts suggested.

4  
Dr. Abernathy returned to the hospital after dinner. He checked the chart, and  
frowned at the no change according to the numbers. Something should be going on  
by this time.

What were they doing wrong?

He went into the patient’s room and sat down in a visitor’s chair. He went over the  
chart with a finger to mark the numbers. He frowned at the lack of progress.

The animals had responded sooner than this. The animals had also died within hours  
of being taken out of their baths. They couldn’t get it wrong with someone’s life on  
the line. And they were on to something. If they lost Mundy, they would never get the  
chance to figure out what they were doing wrong.

Maybe the duration of the bath should be increased more than their initial estimates.  
Maybe they hadn’t left their test subjects in the bath long enough.

There was no way to tell. The signs of distress had been there, but they had misread  
what was going on with the animals. They couldn’t do that with Mundy. The  
government would have their hides.

Abernathy hung the chart on the foot of the bed. There was very little they could do  
unless they woke Mundy up. If they did that, and he wasn’t ready, he might have a  
fatal shock to the system.

They needed something more than guesswork. They needed a way to find out what  
he was going through so they could try to alleviate some of the symptoms. Knowing  
someone was having a cardiac arrest was not the same as that someone going through  
the attack and telling you what he was feeling while you were treating him.

Fixing the symptoms might be what they needed to keep the experimental subject  
alive. And being able to communicate with the man might be the way of going about  
things.

How did he try his idea without causing problems with Erich and their government  
sponsor?

Maybe he could wake the patient up for a little bit of time, and then put him back to  
sleep. Would that cause a problem with the chemicals in the bath? How big a risk was  
it to Mundy? Would it kill him to do that?

Did he want to run the risk without input from Erich? Putting both of their careers on  
the line seemed a bit much.

Something had to be done to keep this subject alive.

Abernathy stood. He went to the head of the bed. He checked Mundy’s eyes. They  
were still too wide open under the lids. What was the bath doing to him?

“Mr. Mundy?,” said Abernathy. He leaned in close to talk in the man’s ear to try to  
punch through the chemical fog the man was in. “Can you hear me?”

Mundy made a noise that could be construed as an affirmative.

“This is Dr. Abernathy,” said the doctor. “I’m going to cut some of the wrap away  
from your face.”

Abernathy left the room. He returned with a small tray of cutting implements. He  
placed the tray on a mobile table and picked up a pair of scissors. He picked a spot  
next to the man’s face and cut some of the wrapping away.

The doctor stepped back. Mundy seemed to be sleeping better at the moment. If he  
woke up, they could talk about what was going on.

Abernathy made a note of the time. Erich could complain about it in the morning.  
They had to make sure there was a morning for Mr. Mundy.

Abernathy decided to go to the office they had put together on the floor and reread  
some of the notes they had taken with the other experiments. They might have  
recorded something useful and not known it.

They were in uncharted territory. He would know soon enough if the subject pulled  
through. Then they could start thinking about more subjects.

The future of their research would be assured if Mundy was able to get out of the bath  
and do everything they had promised when asking for money to continue on a live  
human.

Mundy started to groan the fifth hour of Abernathy’s watch. The duty nurse called the  
doctor to the room.

Abernathy checked for pulse and blood pressure. They roared high. He needed to  
bring the pressure down.

He loaded saline and some diuretics in a bag and punched a hole for the hose in  
Mundy’s arm. He kept an eye on the pressure, but it wasn’t going down. What could  
they do to stop it?

Was this rise in blood pressure the reason the animals died? How did they stop it from  
killing Mundy?

Abernathy wondered what would happen if he let some of the blood out. It was  
something they had left behind, but maybe it would work to lower the pressure until  
they could think of something else.

And he didn’t have anything to lose.

Trying to save the patient was better than waiting for him to die in his tub.

Abernathy looked around. The tray of unused implements was still in place. He  
grimaced, but he had to do something.

He performed a small cut over the heart with a scalpel. He checked to make sure that  
only a small amount of blood was escaping from the wound. He checked pulse and  
blood pressure. It wasn’t going down fast enough. Did he have to make another cut  
to alleviate the fluid buildup?

The blood pressure starting falling. The doctor breathed a sigh of relief. He bandaged  
the cuts he had performed. He doubted that the cuts had done anything to bring the  
blood pressure down, but doing something was better than waiting for the patient to  
die.

He had seen enough of those.

Now that the patient was back within the parameters devised to keep his treatment on  
track, he could take a moment and get some coffee. He needed something stronger,  
but coffee would have to do for now.

Once he was sure Mr. Mundy wouldn’t die, he would take the biggest glass of  
whiskey he could find and drink it all the way down.

They needed some way to fight the high blood pressure other than cutting into the  
patients. Maybe Erich knew something they could use.

New drugs were constantly being worked on. Something for blood pressure should  
be out there. They just needed to know who was handling trials for those types of  
things.

“I need to take a minute,” Abernathy told a nurse. “Can you keep an eye on him until  
I get back?”

“I will be glad to do that,” said the nurse. She waved for him to leave with one hand.  
“He’s not going anywhere.”

“Thank you,” said Abernathy. “I’ll be right back.”

The doctor walked down to the workspace set aside for him and his partner. He  
opened the main drawer of Mannheim’s desk. He fished out the small bottle of brandy  
he knew would be there. He opened it and took a sip. He let the alcohol settle before  
taking another sip. He capped the bottle and put it away.

He had to get back to his patient. He might have saved Mundy’s life. He didn’t want  
his hard work going to waste after the effort he had put in.

Abernathy walked back to the room. Mundy was out again. That was all right since  
they didn’t know what to tell him yet. At least he was still breathing.

The doctor checked the chart before settling in the visitor’s chair. He made a note  
about what he had done on the chart. He felt that Erich would know from the brief  
sentence he had written.

Once Mundy was on his feet and training with the Army, they could try their method  
on another soldier. They had to have the means to counter the high blood pressure.  
That seemed simple enough.

There had to be some kind of manufacturer they could approach to develop something  
they could use on their experiments until the subjects didn’t need it anymore. Maybe  
someone overseas could help them with it.

As soon as Erich took over, he planned to get breakfast and take a nap. The other  
doctor would be glad their vigil was almost at an end, and the subject was still alive.

Four men wearing hospital whites came into the room as the sun started lightening  
the sky. Abernathy stood.

“What’s going on here?,” he asked. He raised his hands in a stop gesture.

“We’re here for the tub,” said one of the men. He gestured at his comrades. “Unplug  
everything. It all has to go.”

“You can’t do this,” said Abernathy. “This man might die if he’s moved.”

“That’s not our problem,” said the spokesman. “Move out of our way.”

“No,” said the doctor. “This man’s condition is critical. He’s my patient. And he and  
this equipment are staying right here.”

One of the men punched Abernathy in the face with a hand as big as a small turkey.  
The doctor went down, dazed by the sudden blow. The goons went to work to take  
the tub apart.

“Let’s hurry this up,” said the spokesman. “We want to be out of here by the time the  
security detail changes.”

The men went to work disconnecting the tub from the cradle it was on. They loaded  
it on a lift and dragged it out of the room.

One of the orderlies tried to get in the way. That was a bad move on his part.

A nurse walked into Mundy’s room and slapped Abernathy in the face. Sudden pain  
shot through his head. He sat up, rubbing his face. His eyes fell on the empty spot  
where the tub had been.

“They took the patient,” said the nurse. “What should we do?”

“Call security, then call Doctor Mannheim,” said Abernathy. He got to his feet. His  
face was sore from the punch he had taken. “Tell them that someone took the  
capsule.”

“Yes, sir,” said the nurse. She bustled away.

Abernathy got his shaky legs under him and made his way to the elevators. He had  
to get Mundy back. He was the key to the whole project. They couldn’t save the  
world without him.

5  
“Everything loaded?,” asked the leader of the thieves. He scanned the hospital’s  
parking lot. They had incurred a great amount of risk stealing the government’s lab  
rat. He wanted to get his money and get out before the Feds caught up with him.

“We’re ready to go, Mike,” said one of his guys. Mike frowned. He didn’t like his  
name being used, but no one was around. He could let it slide this time.

“Go ahead,” said Mike. He gestured for one of his men to get behind the wheel and  
drive off. “We’ll be behind you in the car.”

Mike got in the back seat of the follow car. If anything happened, he wanted to be  
able to shoot without worrying about where he was driving.

The two car parade rolled to the highway. The van holding the capsule turned toward  
Littleville with the car right behind it. The capsule would be set up in a house they  
had rented from an old lady needing money. One phone call should get them the  
money for the job, and then they could disperse until another job showed up.

The government would be looking for them hard. Staying together as a group just  
meant it would be easy to be captured. And he planned to stay in business a long time.

The van cruised the streets until the house with the garage came into view. Mike’s  
minion pulled pass the driveway, then reversed and backed up to the garage door.  
Mike’s car pulled to the curb to help block the view of nosy neighbors.

The disguised mobsters climbed out of the vehicles. They opened the back door and  
dragged the capsule out and placed it on the ground.

Mike opened the garage door. He looked around inside the space. Extra wiring and  
water pipes had been installed to keep the chemical bath going. Some sawbones was  
going to watch the lab rat for them.

“Hook him up,” said Mike. He waved at the plugs. “Get the van to its garage, Jackie.  
We’ll need it if we have to move all this later.”

“Right, boss,” said Jackie. The big goon shut the van doors and got behind the wheel.  
He rolled slowly down the drive, turned on the street, and headed for a parking garage  
away from the neighborhood.

Mike exhaled a sigh of relief when the monitors kicked on. When the doc arrived,  
they would talk about shipping him overseas. There should be a way to do it.

Once the rat was out of the country, he wasn’t Mike’s problem any more. The client  
would have to keep him under lock and key to hide the fact they had stolen something  
from the American military.

Mike took a cigarette from the pack in his white lab coat. He lit up with the help of  
a pack of matches. Things had gone smoother than he thought they would. All he had  
to do was sit on the capsule until it was taken off his hands.

“We’re going to set up a guard detail until we can get rid of this guy,” said Mike. He  
puffed on his cigarette. “This guy is worth a ton of money to us alive. We can’t mess  
this up like Card did with that guy from the airplane plant. When the money comes  
in, we’ll give this guy over and split the take. We’ll hide out until things are okay, and  
then see about our next job.”

“Can’t we go home, Mike?,” asked one of the men. “I don’t want to be stuck here.”

“We’re going to stay here and watch this house until we have turned this guy over,”  
said Mike. “We can’t have any foul-ups. Go get some food if you want, but stay out  
of trouble, and don’t go home.”

“All right,” said the complainer. “Darlene won’t like it.”

“If you tell your floozie anything, I will carve your spleen out with a stick,” said  
Mike. “Got me?”

“I got it, Mike,” said the man.

“Make sure you remember that,” said Mike. “I’ll stand guard while you guys get your  
act together. When you get back, we’ll work out who’s guarding and when.”

The group started splitting up. He wondered how many would talk about this job  
when he couldn’t keep an eye on them.

Card had run into someone who broke every bone in his body. He hoped that his guys  
remembered that. He didn’t want the same thing to happen to them.

He definitely didn’t want that to happen to him.

Mike turned on the radio. He wanted to have some kind of warning if the news heard  
about what his crew had done.

The Federals and the police would be looking for them. His guys could lead them  
right to him. He had to be ready to leave if he saw something going on in the street.

He should have kept his men around the house. They were going to foul up something  
and he would have whomever broke Card crawling up his backside.

Mike wished he had thought to get something to eat before he got stuck waiting for  
his men to come back. His stomach growled at him in agreement with his thought.

He went into the kitchen and looked around. He frowned. Some knucklehead had left  
a can of Ovaltine. Was there some milk in the refrigerator? He opened the door on the  
white fridge. A half bottle of milk sat on the top shelf.

He didn’t know if he should shoot somebody for letting the milk man know they were  
moving in, or grateful he had something to drink until his crew came back.

He frowned. He should have put in for supplies. They had thrown this job together  
faster than he liked. At least it had gone without a hitch so far.

That was pure luck in his opinion. You couldn’t depend on luck. It turned on you  
when you needed it the most.

Mike mixed up a glass of chocolate milk. He took it to the front window and watched  
the street. How many people would wonder what was going on with his crew moving  
in and staying in the house until the deal was over?

How many witnesses would he have to get rid of before this was done?

Mike sipped his drink. His men slowly reconvened and entered the house. A few  
brought in groceries and packages of cooked food. They put the uncooked food up  
and portioned out the cooked food in their Styrofoam boxes.

“I didn’t know how much we would need,” said Jake. “I just tried to double up what  
I thought we would need.”

“It’s good thinking,” said Mike. “We don’t how long we’ll have to wait on the buyer  
to come up with the money. Planning and doing the job seemed more important than  
supplying our fort. We wouldn’t need the fort if we didn’t get the guy. But now we  
can sit back and enjoy a vacation while we wait on our money.”

“How long do you think that will take, Mike?,” asked one of the men. “I don’t want  
to be stuck here forever.”

“It will take as long as it takes,” said Mike. “I don’t want to be here in town with the  
g-men looking for us either. We got the guy. We have to hold on to him for the  
money.”

“I don’t like it,” said the complainer. “We should have the money right now. This is  
looking like we might have to sell this guy back to the government to get our take.”

“If you want out, Louis,” said Mike, “you can leave. I’m not giving up a million  
dollar payday when all I have to do is babysit a mummy for a few hours, maybe a day  
or two.”

“Go ahead and get out, Louis,” said one of the others. “That will give the rest of us  
a bigger cut of the pie.”

“This is too high profile,” said Louis. He stood up. “Hoover’s boys will never let us  
spend the money.”

Mike shot his minion. He put his pistol away as the body fell over. His henchmen  
pushed back from the table so they could get to their weapons if they needed them.

“Roll him up,” said Mike. He waved at the rug Louis lay on. “We need to get rid of  
him before he starts stinking up the place.”

“Did you have to kill him?,” said Joe. “He was the guy who knew how to work the  
electrical stuff for us.”

“He was too afraid of going to prison,” said Mike. “We’re in the big leagues. We  
can’t be afraid on a job like this. We have to be careful and keep away from trouble,  
but we can’t lose our nerve with this much on the line. Roll him up. I’ll call around  
and see if I can find another electrician we can trust.”

The men went about their work with care. They had to pull the rug up, but at least  
Louis hadn’t bled on the floor yet. The material he was wrapped in caught most of it  
from sinking through to the pad underneath.

“Put him in the car,” said Mike. “Joe, you drive. We’re going to take care of this  
before the buyer shows up and wonders what we’re doing.”

Four of the men picked up the rolled rug and shoved it in the back seat of the car.

Mike got in the passenger side. If they ran into the police, he wanted to be ready. Joe  
got behind the wheel.

“Drive over to the God Sent graveyard,” said Mike. “We’ll tuck him in one of the  
mausoleums there.”

“Got it,” said Joe. He backed out of the driveway and got the car pointed in the right  
direction. He drove carefully away from the house.

They reached the graveyard a few minutes later. Joe pulled through the arch over the  
main drive. They rolled slowly through the empty cemetery as Mike looked for the  
perfect place to put their late comrade.

“Pull up to that one over there, Joe,” said Mike. He pointed to a square box with a  
small angel on it. “That one looks like no one has been there for a while.”

The car rolled to a stop behind the indicated mausoleum. Mike and Joe stepped out.  
One look assured them that no one was around to witness what they were going to do.  
Mike opened the back door on his side of the car. They pulled the late Louis out and  
then took the ends of the rolled rug in their hands. They carried the corpse into the  
box and slid it into a space under a shelf set aside for someone who hadn’t come  
home to rest yet.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Mike.

6  
Larry Oakley arrived to a hornet’s nest. He sat behind the wheel as he considered  
what he should do. He got out of the car. He didn’t like this at all.

He walked toward the front of the hospital. The two doctors in charge of the project  
upstairs were arguing with their government liaison, and Kelso. He paused to  
concentrate on them, and their talk.

“We need to get him back,” said Mannheim. “If we don’t, the experiment will fail.”

“We’re working on it, Doctor,” said the Fed. “We’re trying to find the men who did  
this. They worked for someone else. We are sure of that.”

“There is a time limit,” said Abernathy. He held a pad of cloth to his face. “We were  
supposed to take the bandages off to see if the chemicals had worked. This could kill  
the subject.”

“He might be dead already,” said Mannheim. “How could you let someone take our  
subject? We need to get him back.”

Oakley decided that he had heard enough. Someone had to look into this. He was the  
only one he knew who could track things with what was essentially magic. If he could  
save the subject, he might be able to end the experiment without letting the man die.

The doctor stepped into the lobby. He looked around. Guards were everywhere. He  
frowned. He had to get around them to go upstairs.

Oakley walked to the stairs. He checked for anyone in the stairwell. He called on the  
numbers he had grown accustomed to in the last few months since his gift had made  
itself known. He wrapped himself in his disguise before stepping sideways half a  
minute.

He walked up to where the government had taken over for their own project. He slid  
out of the stairwell. The guard looked his way, but it didn’t matter. He was already  
heading down the hall to the main rooms.

He turned in a circle when he reached the test room. The capsule that should be there  
according to what he saw was gone. Now that he had his starting point, he had to  
think of a way to trail the capsule to where it had been moved. Then he could do  
something about the test subject.

Oakley picked up a hand mirror. He shifted its function with a thought. It shone forth  
a blue light. Moving images appeared to him, showing him what had happened on the  
floor. He frowned beneath his mask as the capsule was manhandled to the elevator.

Two things bothered him. How had they known what was going on in the hospital?  
Why had they taken the capsule?

He followed the images toward the elevator. Where had they gone from this floor?  
Had they used the freight entrance to get the capsule out of the hospital?

He decided to head down and try to pick up the images at the entrances. Then he  
could follow the trail from there.

Oakley found the capsule being loaded into a van in the lot. He watched as the van  
and the car rolled toward the exit.

He needed to get his car.

He walked back to where his car was parked. He got behind the wheel. He raised his  
hand. The window lit up for a moment. He slid back to normal reality. He started his  
car.

It was time to operate.

Oakley drove to the exit. The van and car appeared on his window as he drove on the  
street.

He fell in behind the parade as it trailed through Littleville. The van turned into a  
neighborhood. The car followed. He turned in last. The van went by going the other  
way as he drove down the street. He pulled to the curb.

Should he follow the van, or find the car? He looked around to mark where he was  
before he turned around. He should at least find out where the van was and see if  
there was something he could do about that.

Oakley turned around and followed the image of the van.

He hoped he was making the right choice. He hadn’t learned to be two places at once,  
and he had a thought that would be a bad idea if he tried it.

He followed the van across town. It pulled into a lot. The driver got out of the van and  
walked to a car. The car started and drove away.

Oakley turned around and followed the car back toward the neighborhood. He didn’t  
like that. The test subject could already be dead. He might be just in time to keep  
them from escaping.

He pulled to the curb down the street from a house where the two cars were parked.  
He got out and slipped away from reality.

Oakley walked to the house. He looked through the windows. He saw a group of men  
on guard. How did he handle this?

He looked at the capsule. The subject seemed to be awake. What he should do?

Should he go in and use his magic on the men inside the house? He could probably  
put them asleep with the right tool.

He grimaced under his mask.

He heard a noise from where he stood. He went to the next window. The capsule’s top  
flew off. He raised a hand to his face. The guinea pig climbed out of the bath,  
dripping from his bandages. The men looked surprised that he was on his feet.

Oakley was surprised too.

He watched as the test subject grabbed one of the men and threw him through the  
window. He stepped aside to let the man hit the ground without passing through him.  
He made sure the man didn’t get up by putting him to sleep.

Oakley stepped back.

The test subject ripped through the group. He was extremely fast and strong. He  
looked like a blur to Oakley from where he stood. The kidnapers went down after  
being punched and thrown about by the mummy.

Oakley stayed back. He didn’t need to interfere. He could go back to the hospital and  
wait for results.

He decided not to do that. The patient might collapse after the exertion he had  
committed. What happened if his captors revived before he did? It was better to wait  
until the man was done, and then help him if he had to with his control of reality.

The mummy crashed through the last two men. One of them had gone for a gun and  
wound up shooting himself in the leg. The test subject went to the door and fell  
outside on the house’s porch.

Oakley approached the porch. The mummy slept in his cloth of bandages. He checked  
the man’s pulse, and it seemed high, but he could live if he was gotten back to the  
hospital.

He checked the men that had been ripped apart. A lot of broken bones, maybe some  
internal bruising, and the one gunshot wound in the leg. He made sure they would  
sleep until someone came to get them and sealed the wound in the leg so it was like  
it never happened.

There was no point in letting the man bleed to death if he could face a court down the  
road.

The mummy climbed back to his feet. Oakley froze. He hadn’t expected that. He  
slipped sideways as the test subject walked into the house. He looked at the carnage  
he had committed. He started using belts to tie the men up.

The phone rang. Oakley and the mummy looked at it. The mummy went over and  
picked up the receiver. He muttered into the phone. He confirmed that he was still  
asleep in his bath. Then he hung the phone up.

He started dragging his captives into the back room. He closed the curtains so the  
inside of the house couldn’t be seen from outside. He remembered the man he had  
thrown through the window. He rushed out and brought the man back into the house.  
The stray was tied up and tossed in with his fellows.

Oakley didn’t like what he saw. He thought the man would call the authorities.  
Instead, he seemed to be waiting for something to happen.

A car and a van pulled up to the curb, blocking the two cars already parked in front  
of the house. Men got out and started toward the house. Oakley watched them from  
a window where he had set the curtain aside enough to see out. They were there for  
the test subject. How did he stop them?

The leader of the group walked up to the door. He knocked to let the people that he  
was there to deal. The door opened. The mummy punched him in the face. He went  
over the porch railing and hit the grass hard.

The rest of the men seemed surprised by the sudden turn of events. Oakley couldn’t  
blame them. When the helpless man you thought you were going to be carrying  
somewhere else confronted you about that, it tended to throw the planning off.

The test subject threw himself into the yard. He moved like lightning, covering the  
gap between him and the next man in two steps. The target bounced off the car he was  
standing beside into a fist that sent him flying into the ground.

Oakley went to the door. He grimaced as two more men were sent through the glass  
windows of one car. He didn’t have to look after the government’s tiger. The man was  
doing that well enough on his own.

The doctor went to the phone. He dialed the number for the hospital. He asked for  
Kelso when the switchboard operator picked up. He made sure the phone disguised  
his voice. He didn’t need to answer questions about how he had tracked the kidnapers  
down.

“This is Doctor Kelso,” said the administrator. “Who’s this?”

“Do you want to find your guinea pig?,” said Oakley.

“What?,” said Kelso.

“Do you want to find your guinea pig, imbecile?,” said Oakley. He smiled behind his  
mask.

“All right,” said Kelso. “What do you know?”

“He’s at Carson Street in Littleville.” Oakley kept an eye on the door. He didn’t want  
the mummy to catch him on the phone. “He’s making a mess of some thugs trying to  
shoot him. You might want to hurry it up and get here.”

“Who is this?,” said Kelso.

“I’m a doctor too,” said Oakley. He dropped the receiver as a gun went off. He should  
have been paying more attention to the experimental subject. If he was wounded,  
there would be trouble at the hospital over it.

He hoped Kelso did the right thing as he went to the door. He saw the mummy  
moving after men running away from him. They didn’t have a hope of escaping  
unless they had keys to one of the vehicles blocking the driveway and driving away  
before their pursuer caught up with them.

Two of the three remaining men went down as Oakley watched. The third man was  
able to get in the car and slam the door. That didn’t help him as a fist broke out the  
window and pulled him through so he could be pummeled to the ground.

Oakley walked to his own car. He didn’t have to do anything else now. It was in other  
hands for the moment.

7  
Dr. Abernathy followed the group of federal agents in his car. Dr. Kelso had reported  
a strange phone call telling him where Mundy was. He could be dead after all this  
time.

Would they be able to use another test subject after this disaster? Their careers might  
be over. They should have set up on a military base instead of in a civilian hospital.

The government men swooped in. They leaped out of their cars and paused. Signs of  
fighting stood out, but there were no bodies to be seen.

“In here,” said Mundy. He stood behind the front door. He waved a bandaged hand  
at them.

The agents crowded into the house. They scanned the wreckage. One man doing this  
by himself didn’t seem possible.

“The bad guys are in the other room,” Mundy pointed at the closed door. “The guy  
on the phone said to wait for you guys to get here, so I did. What’s going on?”

“Did you call the hospital?,” asked Verner. He looked around the wrecked room until  
he saw the phone sitting on the floor.

“No,” said Mundy. “The phone was off the hook. The guy on the other end was  
asking questions about what was going on.”

“We’re going to take you back to the hospital,” said Verner. “Dr. Abernathy is here  
to make sure you’re okay. He’ll be running tests on you.”

“I’m fine,” said Mundy. “I haven’t felt this good in forever. He’d be better off helping  
those other guys. I don’t know my own strength. I hit them really hard.”

“I’ll look at them, Mr. Verner,” said Abernathy. “We might need ambulances to take  
them away so they can be treated.”

“They’ll be treated at a prison infirmary until their trial,” said Verner. “First, we want  
to know who hired them, how did they know about the hospital, who told them to  
take Mundy. We need to know all that so we can be sure we got all of them here.”

“There were two groups,” said Mundy. He went to the door to the other room. The  
agents were applying handcuffs to replace the belts used as manacles. “This guy ran  
the guys in the house.”

Verner waved for that man to be put aside. He was going to have his broken bones  
set last.

“This other guy led the guys who came to pick me up,” said Mundy. He pointed to the  
man he had taken on the front porch. “They called to ask if I was ready to go, and I  
told them to come ahead. They thought they were talking to this other guy.”

Verner gestured at the man. Two of his agents dragged the man away from the rest,  
and propped him up against a wall.

“Take the rest of these clowns out of here,” ordered Verner. He gestured with a thumb  
at the other door. “Have the doc look them over, and then plop them outside for  
transport. Call for a Mariah, Nimitz. We want them shipped to a jail that will hold  
them until we can get them into court.”

“On it,” said Nimitz. He went out to use the house’s phone to make the calls he  
needed.

“Mundy,” said Verner. “I want you and the doc to head back to the hospital when he’s  
done with the goons. I want you to keep your eyes open until we get the security  
detail back in place.”

“I can take care of myself,” said Mundy. “I feel as good as ten men.”

“The word is if the stuff works, you’ll be the first guy that everything else will be  
measured by,” said Verner. “Until then, I have to make sure nothing like this happens  
again.”

“You might not have a job,” said Mundy. “These guys came in while you were in  
charge.”

“And that’s why I am going to act like I still have a job and try to find out who these  
two work for,” said Verner. “And that’s why you have to go back to the hospital and  
get tested to see if you’ll stay like this, or go back to being sick as a dog.”

“So this might be temporary,” said Mundy. “I don’t like that thought at all.”

“No one knows how the treatment works,” said Verner. “The docs who came up with  
it basically killed everything else they tried it on. You’re the first thing that has  
survived and we want to keep it that way.”

“All right,” said Mundy. “I’ll go but I don’t like it. What if these guys have more guys  
to try again?”

“I think you’ve shown you can operate by yourself,” said Verner. “Now go back to  
the hospital and wait. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

“All right,” said Mundy. He went back into the main room. An agent walked behind  
him at Verner’s silent pointing.

Abernathy looked up from setting a leg. He felt a small amount of pride. Their  
experiment had survived the chemical treatment and proven stronger and faster than  
they had anticipated.

“Mr. Verner?,” asked Abernathy.

“He’s questioning some goons,” said Mundy. “He wants us to go back to the hospital  
while these guys are being shipped to the hoosegow.”

“We need to retrieve the test bed,” said Abernathy. “We need it for any more  
experiments.”

“I’ve got that covered, Doc,” said Nimitz. He was a bulldog of a man who had just  
barely met the FBI height requirement. “Hey, Don. The Doc needs his locker brought  
back to the hospital.”

“We’ll get a van and get it shipped back as soon as we can,” said Don. He waved at  
two others to drag their captive outside to sit with the other criminals that had been  
treated.

“It was simple first aid,” said Abernathy. “They’ll need casts to keep their limbs from  
healing wrong.”

“That’s someone else’s department, Doc,” said Nimitz. “We’re just here to try to  
protect you. I have more sympathy for some of the guys at the hospital that were hurt  
during the raid.”

“I understand,” said Abernathy.

“What happens if you find out who was behind this?,” asked Mundy.

“We go and arrest them,” said Nimitz. He waved them to go through the front door.

“You’re going to arrest them?,” asked Mundy. He didn’t quite keep the sarcasm out  
of his voice.

“Or shoot them,” said Nimitz. “It depends on where they are, and what we’ll have to  
do to bring them in.”

Nimitz gestured for them to get in the back of one of the Federal cars at the scene. He  
got in the front, and started the engine. He pulled away from the curb and u-turned  
to head for the main road back to the hospital.

Abernathy wondered who had called the hospital. He must have done it while Mundy  
was breaking bones. And then he had escaped without being seen by the test subject.

Maybe Mundy had missed one of the gang calling the hospital for help. He turned  
that over in his mind. No one would call Kelso for help unless they knew him  
personally.

Could there have been someone else at the house? That made sense, but who? Not  
many people knew about the kidnaping, and those that did were connected to the  
hospital, or the government, or the kidnapers. It had to be someone from one of those  
three factions, but there was no reason for the hospital or government faction to leave  
while Mundy was breaking bones.

Maybe a fourth faction had entered the fray and stopped when it was no longer  
needed.

That would explain some things. Who represented that fourth faction? Were they  
going to intervene in future problems? Were they based out of the hospital?

There were too many questions and not enough answers. He would talk to Verner  
about his thoughts later.

Maybe the agent could set some kind of trap to talk to the fourth faction. Maybe they  
could use that faction to keep the project safer than it had been shown to be.

The fact that men had just waltzed in pass security didn’t do much for his trust in their  
competence.

Maybe he should look around and see if he could locate this fourth faction on his  
own. Could he do it? Where could he start?

He decided that staff would be the best place to start. They had to know Kelso, and  
the hospital. That gave him a narrow pool of suspects. He could expand outwards  
from there.

First he had to make sure his test subject would live now that he was out of the  
chemicals that had been constructed to keep his body from wrecking itself.

The point remained that no one other than himself, Mannheim, and the security detail  
knew what was going on. How had the gang known to take the whole capsule?  
Someone must have told them to do it. Who had done that?

He didn’t like the options that were being listed in his head. It didn’t make sense  
unless the hope was to sell the formula to another government to create soldiers of  
their own.

Mundy had shown he was fast as anything, and strong as an ox. An army of soldiers  
like that could roll over anything in its way.

Only one person could have told them to take the capsule. Maybe one of the security  
guards could have guessed the capsule was important and directed the kidnapers to  
take it, but only one man could have told them how it important it was.

Abernathy didn’t like the way his thoughts were going. It meant that the man trying  
to steal the project was his partner. It was his idea to go to the government in the first  
place with their data. Why had he tried to sell it to someone else?

Maybe he was wrong. He had worked with Mannheim for years. The process was his  
dream. There was no way he would just give it away for someone else to use.

And he didn’t have any proof. He couldn’t just accuse his partner of trying to sell  
their experimental subject to some people. That would look like he was being  
paranoid.

Should he tell Verner? If he was wrong, he was damaging Mannheim’s reputation.  
If he was right, they couldn’t let him continue on the project. He would find someone  
else to try to take the process and make their own soldiers.

There was a real danger to everyone involved in the project as long as they didn’t  
know whom had leaked the information out and if they were still in place.

They might not be as lucky the next time this happened.

8  
Abernathy checked Mundy out when they were back at the hospital. Everything was  
within human norms, or below. His system seemed to be processing things faster than  
a normal human’s.

“What can you tell me about what happened?,” asked Abernathy. He needed to know  
how the process was working on their guinea pig if they wanted to use it on another  
human.

“I was in the capsule,” said Mundy. “I could hear bits and pieces. The one guy who  
took me from here killed another guy who wanted to get out. They took the body  
somewhere and dumped it. The lid wasn’t designed to keep me in the bath. They just  
assumed it did. When I thought I was ready, I overcame the first guys. The phone  
rang. I answered it and told the second group to come ahead.”

“Do you remember the fights?,” said Abernathy. He knew that humans reported  
losing track of things when they were trying to get out of trouble.

“Yes,” said Mundy. “They were in slow motion compared to me. I could see  
everything and move to stop whatever they were trying to do to stop me. I hit them  
harder than I wanted. I didn’t hold back once I got started.”

“I don’t think the real brains behind this was at that house,” said Abernathy. “I want  
you to keep an eye out for things until we’re sure nothing else will happen.”

“You think somebody here at the hospital told them where to find me,” said Mundy.  
He understood the implications immediately.

“Yes,” said Abernathy. “I also think someone from the hospital called Kelso to tell  
him where to find you. We might have two conflicting groups working here.”

“I see that,” said Mundy. “One group wants to sell the process overseas. The other  
wants to at least protect the process here.”

“Or protect the hospital,” said Abernathy. “I suspect the person who tracked you  
down is one of the doctors that works here. That’s how he knew to call Kelso.”

“But since we don’t know which one that is, we can’t trust anybody until we have  
things straightened out,” said Mundy.

“Hopefully, Verner will have some idea what is going on after he is done questioning  
the people you subdued,” said Abernathy. “If he is in on it, I don’t think he would  
have to hire people to steal the equipment. He would just get government people to  
move it with some cover story and act like he didn’t know what happened.”

“He still can’t be trusted,” said Mundy. “He’s in charge of security. He can report he  
was told anything by the guys and still try to sell things to other governments.”

“How do you want to do things?,” said Abernathy. “We have to rely on someone to  
keep going.”

“Kelso and the hospital’s protector are the only ones we know aren’t involved,” said  
Mundy. “We can’t depend on Kelso not telling Verner anything we tell him. And the  
protector is unknown. He could be anyone in the hospital.”

“So we’re on our own until we find this protector,” said Abernathy. He didn’t like to  
rely on someone he didn’t know and only guessed was around. He liked to depend on  
more factual things to believe in.

“Let’s see what Verner has to say,” said Mundy. “I might be able to get out of the  
hospital now.”

“We still have to run tests,” said Abernathy. “But at least you survived the chemical  
bath. We weren’t sure you would.”

“That makes me feel better for being a volunteer,” said Mundy. “Never again.”

Abernathy nodded. The experiment had been dangerous, but things had turned out  
better than expected. Maybe the temporary disconnect from the cables and electricity  
had been enough to change things to a positive result.

How much worse would things be if Mundy had been killed by the moving of his  
capsule across town?

Verner appeared on the floor as Abernathy filled out the chart. They needed to run  
tests to make sure Mundy didn’t drop dead. Once that was out of the way, he would  
have to participate in whatever the government wanted him to do.

“Seen Mannheim?,” Verner asked. He looked around the open space that the nurses  
used for their paperwork. “I need to talk to him.”

“Not since this morning,” said Abernathy. “Mundy seems okay after what happened.  
I cut the bandages and ran some preliminary tests. Unless something happens in the  
next few days, he might be a survivor of our process.”

“That’s good,” said Verner. “We’ll test him out and then send him back east. If he can  
do the things you say, the brass will want him to bail their backsides out of problems  
overseas.”

“Do you think he’s ready to do anything like that?,” said Abernathy.

“That’s not my call,” said Verner. “Once he’s off my hands, I go to guarding the next  
subject.”

Mannheim stepped out of the elevator. A group of men came out of the elevator with  
him. Verner reached for his service weapon. Pointed pistols stopped that move.

“Twice in two days,” said Verner. “I can’t believe this.”

“The experiment turned Mundy into a better fighter than we thought he would be,”  
said Mannheim. “It’s too bad he escaped and stopped things at the house. The hope  
was to send him to Germany and let the Fatherland try to duplicate him with the best  
soldiers they have.”

“I won’t go,” said Mundy from the door of his room. He wore pajamas someone had  
given him. “I’m not your slave.”

“If you don’t cooperate, some of these people will be hurt.” Mannheim waved a hand  
at the open space. “We’re going to take Dr. Abernathy as a hostage to your good  
behavior. If you step out of line, we will hurt him. He won’t be able to perform tests  
with one hand for example.”

“You won’t make it out of the country,” said Verner. “As soon as you leave the  
hospital, local cops and government agents will flood every airport within a hundred  
miles of here.”

“Don’t worry about that, Verner,” said Mannheim. “All we need is Abernathy. The  
rest of you can be sacrificed for the greater good.”

Mundy tensed up. He wasn’t going to let someone get hurt if he could help it. He  
eyed the distances involved. He could take two of them easily before they could start  
shooting at him.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Mannheim. “You’re not that fast. We’ll riddle all the  
normal people before you even got started. It’s best if you come along quietly.”

“All right,” said Abernathy. He stepped forward. He had a faint hope that the  
hospital’s protector would arrive to help out. He needed to do something to make that  
easier. The best thing would be to get all the guns pointing away from people, and if  
they went quietly, the move could buy time for that uncertain personage, or the  
authorities, to do something.

“That’s what I expected, Reynolds,” said Mannheim. “You go down in the elevator  
first. Don’t try to run. We have men at every door.”

“It didn’t have to be like this, Erich,” said Abernathy. “You’re going to be a fugitive  
for the rest of your life.”

“I’ll be a rich and protected fugitive as long as I am making more soldiers for  
Germany.” Mannheim smiled. “Someone there appreciates our research and is willing  
to pay for success without test trials and interference by simpletons who don’t know  
what a molecule is.”

A man stepped off the elevator. He went to one of the gunmen and whispered  
something. He stepped back on the elevator and descended back to the hospital’s  
lobby.

“Someone reported us,” said the gunman in charge. “We have to move a little faster.”

“Manacles, Mundy.” Mannheim gestured for one of the men to step forward. He held  
cuffs connected to chains in his hands. “Don’t do anything, or Abernathy will get hurt  
first. Then the rest of these people will follow.”

The sound of breaking glass crashed over the jangling of chains. Everyone looked at  
the dark skinned man coming through the door of an empty room. Bullets expressed  
displeasure at the sudden interruption. The slugs flattened on impact as the rescuer  
charged forward.

Mundy leaped forward. Everyone’s attention was on the figure charging through  
flying steel. His first punch slamming a man across the room showed them that it had  
been a mistake to take their attention off of him.

Abernathy jumped at Mannheim. Both men went down to the floor. Abernathy went  
for the throat, trying to strangle his former comrade. A punch to the face stopped him  
from choking his enemy. Another punch forced him to roll away.

Gunmen flew through the air. The newcomer grabbed and flung in one motion as he  
worked his way across the room. The nurses and orderlies were able to get out of the  
way in the chaos as he used his arms like a machine.

Mundy crashed into a knot still standing. He hadn’t been trained to hurt people. His  
instinct and enhanced natural abilities did that for him. Every man he touched went  
down with some kind of broken bone.

Abernathy and Mannheim squared off. They had a cleared area. Their battlefield was  
marked by fallen thugs with damage from high speed impacts.

“At least I’ll be able to deal with you,” said Mannheim. “That’ll be something.”

Verner struck the renegade doctor across the back of his head with the butt of his  
pistol. He kicked the man after he collapsed to the ground. He looked around at the  
mess.

The stranger punched one man in the face after taking his weapon. The man collapsed  
into a pile of his friends. He nodded at the realization he had taken care of the last  
threat.

The stranger adjusted the goggles covering his eyes as he headed for the room he had  
used for his entrance.

“Where do you think you’re going?,” asked Verner, missing a grab of the other man’s  
arm. “I have a ton of questions for you.”

“I have to get back to work,” said the thin man. “My boss only gave me a couple of  
minutes to deal with this.”

He jumped out of the smashed window. Verner, Mundy, and Abernathy ran forward  
to watch his landing in the parking lot. Instead he rocketed out of sight on a trail of  
vanishing fire.

“What the heck was that?,” asked Mundy.

“Starman,” said Verner. “He’s been showing up everywhere. It looks like he heard  
about our problem with Mannheim’s goons and decided to lend a hand.”

“Is that why the government greenlit the experiment?,” asked Abernathy. “Being able  
to fly was never in the cards for what we had.”

“We can talk about this later,” said Verner. “First, we have to make sure we have all  
of them, and they are all restrained. Then we can worry about where the project is  
going to go from here.”

“Do I get some goggles and black clothes?,” asked Mundy.

“That is not up to me,” said Verner.

Epilogue  
Dr. Reynolds Abernathy paused to look into the window by the main door of the  
diner. The bruises on his face had faded more than the bruises to his ego. He should  
have seen Erich’s betrayal from a mile away.

The place looked as busy as the last time he was here. The man he wanted to see was  
at his own table in the center of the room. Most of the white customers paid him no  
mind as he dug through the piles of food he had on the table.

“Are we going in, or standing out here all night?,” asked Mundy. He had asked for  
regular clothes to wear instead of the hospital gown, or workout clothes he had worn  
since the initial phase of the experiment had ended.

Verner had gotten him a suit and tie after some consideration.

“How did you get clearance to leave without a guard?,” asked Abernathy.

“Who said I got clearance?,” asked Mundy. He pushed back his brown hair with his  
hand. “I just left.”

“Mr. Verner will not be happy with that,” said Abernathy. He grabbed the dull gray  
handle for the diner door and pulled it open.

“He can’t do anything until you come up with a replacement,” said Mundy. “I  
represent too much investment of time and money for him to just throw me away at  
the moment.”

“Nobody is ever really irreplaceable,” said Abernathy.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” said Mundy.

Abernathy made a humph noise as they crossed the crowded dining area. The doctor  
noted the distance most of the customers kept from the man he wanted to see. He  
wondered how they could be so blind.

The man wasn’t such a dark color because of some natural process of his skin. He  
was black because his skin was unnatural. Even his features were uneven and only  
barely looked human in his bald head. He wasn’t human in any way to even a casual  
observer. Thin arms, and long fingered hands shoved food in his maw without a care. 

Mundy, his mind enhanced by the chemical bath he had been subjected to for the last  
month, made a sound. He knew this person was as much a man as the owls that  
hunted the night around Littleville.

“Can we talk with you?,” asked Abernathy.

The dark man waved to seats on the other side of the table.

“Get your own food,” he said. His voice enunciated the wrong syllables and paused  
at the wrong spots in Abernathy’s opinion, but he wasn’t an expert in such things.

Mundy waved at a waitress as he sat down. He examined the piles of food on the table  
with raised eyebrows.

“All this for you?,” he asked.

“Hollow leg,” said the dark man. “What do you want to talk about other than my  
diet?”

“I want to talk about what happened at the hospital,” said Abernathy.

“Oh,” said the inhuman thing. He paused in his eating. “That.”

“Yes, that,” said Abernathy. “I recognized you from my earlier visit here. It was  
simple to call and ask if you had a routine.”

“That Phil.” He looked at the counter, and the kitchen beyond. “He knows better than  
that.”

“It looks like you’re his best customer,” said Mundy. He indicated the food.

“I probably am,” said the dark man. “What do you want, Doctor?”

“Hey, Steve,” said the waitress from Abernathy’s earlier visit. She wore her dark hair  
back, and the uniform looked like a belted pink bag on her slender frame. Her brown  
eyes focused on Mundy like a lioness on the hunt. “Who are your friends?”

“Not my friends, Eleanor,” said Steve. “They’re from a job I did at the hospital.”

“What did he have?,” asked Mundy. He gestured at the display.

“Two of everything, and a standing order for dessert afterwards,” said Eleanor  
without thought. She smiled at Mundy as she waited for the order.

“I’ll take a quarter of that,” said Mundy. “You decide the quarter.”

“All right,” said Eleanor. “What would you like, sir?”

Abernathy noted she didn’t smile at him as warmly as she did Mundy. He pushed the  
irritation down. He wasn’t a ladies man. And Mundy was fifteen years younger and  
a hundred times more muscular.

“I’ll take the special and two bottles of Coke,” said Abernathy.

“It’ll take a bit,” said Eleanor. She wrote notes down on the ticket pad in her hand.  
“Don’t go away.”

She sashayed off to hang the order ticket on a holder so the cooks knew what to cook.

“There’s no way you’re going to eat a quarter of what I have,” said Steve.

“I don’t have to,” said Mundy. “I can ask for a doggy bag for whatever I don’t eat.”

“None of this is what we’re here about, Steve,” said Abernathy. “I know you’re  
Starman. I want you to help us out.”

“Who’s us?,” asked Steve.

“The United States Government,” said Abernathy. “The world is going to war in the  
next decade. The government is trying to field living weapons to fight. We need  
someone like you to join in.”

“I like being an independent,” said Steve. He went back to eating. “There’s no room  
in a military hierarchy for someone like me. They would want me to stop doing what  
I’m doing to do what they want me to do. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“What do you do, Steve?,” asked Mundy.

“So far I have saved nine hundred twenty lives by diverting natural disasters,” said  
Steve. “I’d have to look at the log to tell you the number of crimes I have stopped,  
and general help I have given.”

“You have a log?,” asked Mundy.

“Mrs. Johnson keeps one,” said Steve. He pushed aside his empty plate and pulled a  
full one to him. “She won’t like that my secret identity is known to strangers.”

“It’s only known to us,” said Abernathy.

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” said Steve. His eyes caught fire for a second  
before he regained control of his anger.

“Let’s start over,” said Mundy. “I’m Alex Mundy, Subject ten, the Olympus Project.  
This is Dr. Reynolds Abernathy, head scientist and doctor on the Project. No one else  
knows about you. We won’t tell Verner about you, or anyone else.”

“We won’t?,” said Abernathy.

“No,” said Mundy. “You can’t try to blackmail someone to do your bidding. If the  
blackmail vanishes, or the victim decides he has nothing to lose, there will be  
problems. And I’m not threatening someone’s loved ones for anybody.”

“I’m not threatening his loved ones,” said Abernathy. He held up his hands in protest.

“Verner would in a minute,” said Mundy. “If the chain of command gave the order,  
he would jump at threatening civilians to get another weapon for the government.”

“And once one government official knows, they all know,” said Steve. “I’m surprised  
that your Project hasn’t been broadcasted over the radio as propaganda.”

“Mr. Mundy is the only survivor so far,” said Abernathy. “There was a chance he  
wouldn’t have survived.”

“That’s rough,” said Steve. “What’s the process?”

The next hour was full of chemical notes and processes. Steve went through his food  
while writing on napkins with a pen. Mundy’s and Abernathy’s dishes appeared in  
the middle of this. Eleanor seemed bemused by the argument that was going on at the  
table.

“How do you know any of this?,” asked Abernathy. He gestured at the overalls and  
white shirt of a farmer that Steve wore.

“I’m not from around here,” said Steve. “I’ve had reason to look up mutagenic  
principles in the last few months.”

“I don’t understand,” said Abernathy.

“He’s an alien, and something about the air has changed him,” said Mundy. He shook  
his head.

“It’s the sun,” said Steve. “It produces a chemical reaction that sets me on fire. That’s  
why I have to eat so much once a week.”

“Your skin?,” said Abernathy. He held out his hand. He waited for the alien to hold  
out his hand. He touched the skin. “Feels like stone.”

“It’s a casing,” said Steve. He took his hand back. “My internal organs have become  
plasma. I have some breaches so I have learned to close those holes up without help.”

“How?,” asked Abernathy.

“Mental control,” said Steve. “I can think about it and close them.”

“Is that where the flight and speed come from?,” asked Mundy.

“Yes,” said Steve. “Also the super strength.”

“If this chemical formula works out, we’ll be able to create more super soldiers like  
Mr. Mundy,” said Abernathy.

“I hope you’re careful about the selection process,” said Steve. “Some humans aren’t  
cut out to be changed into something not human.”

“I’ll do the best I can,” said Abernathy. “Mannheim brought everything to the  
government so we could get funding.”

Steve tried to shrug, but only one shoulder moved right.

“I thought I told you not to eat in here anymore,” said a voice cutting through the  
small space. “And who are you two? Why are you sitting with this darkie?”

“We’re the government,” said Mundy. “Move on and bother someone else.”

“We’re the government?,” said Abernathy. “Really?”

“This is Mundy and Abernathy, Kent,” said Steve. “Mundy and Abernathy, this is  
Kent, and why you shouldn’t give the wrong person your chemicals.”

“I see,” said Abernathy. “How do you do?”

“We’re going to teach you three a lesson,” said Kent. “We don’t tolerate your kind  
here.”

“Really?,” said Mundy. He waved a hand at the plates in front of him. “I’m still  
eating. Go away. When I’m done, I’ll break your legs then.”

Abernathy covered his face with a hand. A brawl was the last thing he needed.

“You don’t want to mess with him, Kent,” said Steve. He looked down at his empty  
plates. “He put some men in the hospital last week.”

“I think the three of you should get up and walk outside so we can beat you to a  
pulp,” said Kent. “Get up.”

“All right,” said Mundy. He stood, pushing his chair back. He was a foot taller and  
at least fifty pounds heavier than Judd Kent. He waved at the waitress. “Can you give  
me a bag to put this food in.”

Eleanor nodded. She glared at Kent and his three useless friends. Her chances of a  
date were going up in smoke. She went to the diner’s phone to call the sheriff.  
Someone had to do something. Steve’s hand closed over her’s. It felt too warm, and  
solid, to be a real hand.

And he had crossed the room faster than she liked.

“Let him take care of his own problems,” Steve said before withdrawing his hand. He  
pulled out a small amount of bills and handed them over. “This is for what we owe.  
Pack up Mundy’s food for him and we’ll be even.”

“This is way too much,” said Eleanor.

“The rest is your tip,” said Steve. “Have a good night, Elly.”

Steve walked across the room as the four musketeers and Mundy stepped outside.  
Kent was a fool, or hoping he was tougher than the government experiment.  
Abernathy stood by the table. He looked out the window facing the soon to be brawl  
with the rest of the customers.

Abernathy hoped Verner didn’t hear about this. He would be livid.

There seemed to be some talking going on. The doctor wondered if Kent had gotten  
scared when he saw that Mundy looked quite a bit stronger than the stick-like Steve.

The waitress arrived with styrofoam boxes and started bagging the rest of Mundy’s  
food up. He turned to glance at her. When he turned back to look out the window,  
Mundy was straightening his tie and smoothing back his hair with a hand. Steve  
shrugged.

Mundy came back inside the diner, Steve trailing behind him. The diners clapped for  
the two of them. Mundy smiled.

“I do have one question, Steve,” said Abernathy. He handed the boxes of food to  
Mundy, and nodded his head at the waitress. “How did you know about the hospital?”

“I have a radio that listens to other radios,” said Steve. “As soon as the call for help  
was broadcast in the air, my radio picked it up. Luckily, I was on break when that  
happened and could lend a hand. The food’s tab is paid, so I’m heading home.”

“What about the job offer?,” asked Abernathy, grabbing the notes from the table.  
“You have helped the process a hundred fold.”

“If you are going to keep changing humans, pick good people who can handle it,”  
said Steve. “You lucked out with Mundy. Someone else could take your process and  
do things you don’t think are good.”

Steve turned and walked out of the diner. He walked down the road and vanished in  
the dark.

Abernathy handed Mundy his food and walked outside. He looked in the sky. A small  
trail of fire vanished as he watched.

“You knew he would say no,” said Mundy. “That’s why you didn’t bring Verner.”

“Verner would have been ordered to do something,” said Abernathy. “I don’t think  
that would have been wise with Steve’s obvious power.”

“And it got us a free dinner,” said Mundy. He paused to kick Kent in the head again  
on the way to the car.


End file.
